overview

Overview:Urban Trees is a mixed-media exhibition centering on the life of the urban tree. As with the prototypical Group of Seven white pine, these trees eke out an existence in a harsh and unforgiving Canadian environment. The exhibition provokes consideration of the life-cycle of the Canadian urban tree.

Part One: Vitality: A series of lightbox photography: large-scale Duratrans prints depicting the unique adaptability of trees and utility poles within the harsh urban environment. Seeking to showcase the wide variety of patient survival strategies of these plants,this series also focuses on the precursors to a city tree’s survival: Water, Earth, Light and Air.

Part Two: Utility: A series of Shadowbox paintings: silhouettes of various wooden utility poles painted in enamel and latex on vintage windows (many with drawn glass). The series explores the complexity and fragility of society’s power and communication grids. The boxes portray harvested wild trees, repurposed and replanted as a utility poles; industrial shadows of their former selves. Wires sprout like tendrils and become a perverse inverted root-system for the lifeless tree. The pole’s ultimate fate depends on its ability to keep this new electronic root vital.